Chinese authorities have sentenced 11 members of a malware gang to long stretches behind bars, after the group was convicted of creating and distributing Trojans designed to steal the login credentials of online gamers.
The malware slingers were sentenced to up to three years behind bars and fined a total of $120,000. More …

Damn straight they do..

A WoW account often has more resale value than the average credit card number, in the wrong circles. Harvesting them via trojans delivered as banner ads (through careless but innocent ad networks) is a very popular vector.

This has the obvious advantage of catching people who'd never install dodgy binaries from a torrent or other stereotypically risky activity- and thus whose defenses might not be up to scratch, too.

China, prison?

Definitely an improvement

Crime does pay

Although I definitely would not want to find myself in a Chinese prision or any amount of time (The Dark Knight movie sequences non-withstanding), a 120,000 fine and "up to" three years for a (hopefully larger amount) share of 4.4 mil - wow.

Designer Bags

Value

Obviously people who pay to play the WoW grindfest will pay extra to avoid all the grinding. They would not fund crime if a legal alternative were available. Perhaps Blizzard should offer a special premium account. For a little extra money each month, a Blizzard employee will play the game for you so you don't have to.